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Peace & Union™ War & Disunion 



SPEECH 



HON. JOHx\ McKEON, 



DELIVEKED BEFORE THE 



DEMOORATIO UNION ASSOCIATION, 



Headquarters, So. 932 Broadway, on Tuesday ETeDing, March 3. 



NEW-YORK: VAN EYRIE, HORTON & CO 

. 1863. 



FBICB, by EXPRESS, $2.00 PER HUNDRED; $15.00 PER THOUSAND. By MAHx. 
SINGLE COPIES FIVE CTS., or FORTY CTS. PER DOZEN. 



f\ 



. ^.^t • ■ ■ ■ 

Peace and Union— War and Disunion. 



HON. JOHN McKEON, 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



The Democratic Union Association, 

AT THEIR HEADQUARTERS, No. 932 BROADWAY, 

ON TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 3. . 



Mr. McKeon, after being introduced by the : 
Cbairman of tbe meeting, sijoke as follows.: — | 
I congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, and ] 
tbrough you, my fellaw-citizens, on the success 
which has thus .far attended the labors of this | 
Association. Through your exertioqs, frequent 
opportunities are presented for placing before 
the country the opinions of the Democracy in 
relatioH to the pending questions of the day.— 
In this Hall are collected, night after nighr, 
the labor and the wealth, in a word, the solid 
men of the metroi^olis, to listen to the various 
suggestions which may be made as to the 
course of policy to be adopted in out present 
perilous condition. This crowded Hall shows 
the deep interest taken in public matters at a 
time when no election is at hand in this State. 
It shows the anxiety to ascertain the true state 
of things, and, if possible, to apply a remedy to 
the eviis under which we are suiforing. Your 
organization has not only been a bi'ight exam- 
ple, which has been followed by the Democracy 
m other cities of the Union, biit it has been the 
cause of calling into existence, j amongst our 
Bepubhcan friends, oreanizations under the 
name of " Union Leagues," the object of .vhich 
is to meet the arguments adduced here, and to 
submit to the great tribunal of the people views 
which will counteract the eifect of those here 
enunciated. I congratulate the Republican 
party on this movement, which is intended to 
appeal to the judgment and fjatriotism of the 
people. I congratulate them on this resort to 
discussion. If they are right in then' poUcy, 
appeals to the reason of the masses will be 



more iDOwerful than the bars and bolts of any 
Bastile. I congratulate the Republicans that, 
after having tried " the argument offeree, they 
are, now about to try the force of argument.'' 

Since I last had the honor to address you, this 
great State has witnessed an important political 
revolution. A majority of the electors of this 
Commonwealth have called Horatio Seymour to 
I the Gubernatorial chair. By the voice of the 
! people of this State, Horatio Seymour has been 
' elected Governor of the State of New York,and, 
in theJang.nage of trie Constitution of the State, 
i Commander-in-Chief of ah the military and na- 
I val forces of the State. His election was a 
I bloodless revolution, transferring the political 
power of the State into tnc hands of one who 
would conduct our p.li'airs noi only in obedience 
to the Constitution and laws of the United 
States, but of this State. It wis not an ordi- 
nary partizan triumph. It was more. By the 
election of Seymour, in obedience to the voice 
of the people, a rampart ot protection was 
thrown around the rights and liberties of every 
man witliin the territorial lines of the State. — 
Horatio Seymour, invested as Governor, v/ith 
the authority of the people of this State, has 
declared that the Constitution of the State of 
New York, and all laws passed in pursuance 
thereof, shall be respected and obeyed, that the 
rights of all her citizens shall be protected. I 
believe that the pledge of the Goveliior will be 
conscientiously redeemed. In Seymour's first 
message to the Legislature of this State, in re- 
ferring to the war now desolating the land, he 
addressed that body as follows : 



" The genius of oiir government, and the in- 1 
terests of onr people demand that the aspects | 
of this war should he discussed with entire I 
freedom. Not only is the National life at stake, i 
but evcrj' personal, every family, every sacred I 
interest is involved. We must grapple with I 
the great questions of the day ; we must can- 1 
front the dangers of our position. The truths j 
of our financial and military situation must not 
bs kept back. There must be no attempt to i 
put: down the full expression of public opinion, i 
It must be known and heeded, to enable Gov- j 
ernment to manage pubUc atiairs with success, l 
There is a yearning desii'e among our people to [ 
learn their actual condition. They demand 
free discussion. " Tliis should be conducted in \ 
an earnest, thoughtful, patriotic spirit." • 

In the full confidence of the sincerity of these | 
assm-ances, and of the povrer of the State to j 
sustain the right of free discussion, and as a i 
native-born citizen of the State, claiming the j 
right to discuss public measures, I appear be- 
fore you to-night. I come to speak frankly i 
with my fellow-citizens. 'It is a time for free- ' 
dom of discussion. We must exercise that j 
freedom, or we are lost as a people. This Gov- | 
ernment beldtgs, not to the temporary mcum- 1 
bents of offices, not to rapacious and linscrupu- \ 
lous contractors, but to the laborhig masses, j 
who seek to enjoy its blessings, and to transmit 
them to their children. In our present terrible 
affliction of civil war, there is no possible sal- [ 
vation for us, except in the bold, resolute, and 
energetic action of every true American citizen. 
Indiflerence, timidity, and above all, that sel- 
fishness which shrinks from danger and respon- 
sibility, must be cast aside by every man in the I 
community, or our hbtsrties, and our splendid I 
form of government, will be crushed forever.— 
They may yet be saved, and our integrity as a i 
united Confederacy may yet be restored hj the 
uprising of the masses of the people, and by 
them alone. 

My pui'pose to-night is not to appeal to your 
passions or your prejudices. My object is to 
endeavor to place b 3fore you reminiscences of 
the past — that past, the history of which is 
interwoven with the struggle of the infant co- 
lonies against, the usurpations and oppressions 
of the British Crown ; of the formation of our 
pecuhar foi^m of gevernment, its practical 
operations, with its trials an ;1 its triumphs ; to 
point out to you the dangers through which it 
has passed, and by what means it has been 
saved from destruction ; and gathering toge- 
ther from that past its rays of light, and, if pos- 
sible, by the light of experience, to grope our 
way through the darkness of that futvire which 
lies before us. 

Amidst the great events which convulsed the 
world during the last century, the most impor- 
tant was the Arnerican Revolution. For years 
prior to the Declaration of Independence, the 
Colonies remonstrated against the policy of 
Great Britain, which "hampered the trade, vio- 
lated the privileges and otiended the pride of 
Americans." The Colonies sent rjetition on peti- 
tion to England, asking for a redress of griev- 
ances, but they were unheeded. The leading 
minds of the Colonies clung to the idea of Union 
with Great Britain. They professed their at- 
tachment to the British Crown, but they were 
not believed to be sincere in their professions. 
Lord Camden, in reply to a suggestion that a 
redress of grievances was all that the Ameri- 
cans wanted, asserted that the Am'^'ricans did 
not mean to be satisfied \\'ith such redress, but 
that they intended to imfurl the baimer of in- 
dependence. Benjamin Franklin indignantly 



repudiated any such intention. George Wash- 
ington, just before the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, declared that he cherished a love for the 
Union %\ith Great- Britain, and Thomas Jefferson 
iumself sought connection with the British 
empire, with security for the rights of the Col- 
onists, in preference to separation. The Colonies 
sought, by entreaty, a concession to their jiist 
demands. This concession was denied them. — 
Every overtui^e for conciliation was repudiated 
Forbearance ceased to be a vii'tue after years 
of useless entreaties. The cry then went "forth 
tiiroughout the land of Liberty and Indepen- 
dsace. 

The Declaration of Independence was forced 
upon the Colonies. When it was pub- 
Ushed, it was not the act of the people 
of the Colonies, acting as one mass, but 
was the declaration, as that instrument de- 
clares, of the representatives of the " United 
States of America." rt was the declaration that 
these united colonies " are, and of right ought 
to be, free and independent States, and as free 
and independent States have power to buy and 
conclude peace, contract alliances, estabUsh 
commerce, and do all other acts and things 
which independent States may of right do." The 
author of the Declaration of Independence 
stated to the world the Ust of grievances un- 
der which the colonies were groanmg, and 
which in their jiidgment justified tliem in sev- 
ering political ties whicli bound them to Great 
Britain. But not satisfied with the enumera- 
tion of the wrongs committed against the colo- 
nies as a justification for their c mrse, they ad- 
vanced one step fm'ther and announced new and 
peculiarly American doctrines as then" authority 
for then" conduct. Whilst the governments of 
the Old World rested their foundations on the 
authority of Kings to govern by divine right, 
and thert^by claimed obedience from the people 
and the right to coerce, by/orce, submission of 
the people to the wUl of the sovereign, the 
American colonies repudiated sucli doctrines 
and proclaimed that " all governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned," and that the people have a "right to 
alter their form of government, and to institute 
a new government, laying its foundation on 
such principles and orgauizmg its powers in 
such form as to thein shall seem most likely to 
effect their safety and happiness." The line of 
demarkation between the governments of the 
Old World and the New, was distmetly drawn. 
The formor was founded on force, the latter on 
consent. The former was upheld by bayonets, 
the latter rested on the hearts of the people. 
These American doctrines were the cause as 
well as the great object of our Revolution. It 
was to maintain these views that indu'^ed 
the able men of that time, to use the language of 
a distinguished living British statesman, " to cut 
the towing rope and steer a course for them- 
selves over the world's ocean." When the rep- 
resentatives of the American colonies spoke to 
the world their resolution to attain inde- 
pendence, their declaration fidly came up to the 
wishes of Washington, who, in referring to the 
necessity of it said, "I would m open, undis- 
guised and manly terms, proclaim our wrongs 
and our resolution to have redress. I woiild 
tell them v.e had borne much, that we had long 
and ardently sought for reconciliation uiDon 
honorable terms — that it liad been denied us — 
that aU our attempts after peace had proved 
abortive, and had been grossly misrepresented 
—that we have done everything which could be 
expected from the best of subjects ; that the 
spirit of freedom rises too high in us to submit 



to alaverj'. This would I tell thorn, not under amendment to the address to the crovTu, urged 
covert, but in words as clear as the suu in its the propriety of recalling the troopa ijom Bos- 
meridian brightness." I ton, and as "preparatory for the restoration of 
When our Declaration of Independence was peace. " Eesistance," he said, "to your acts 
made, the die was cast of eternal separation of was'necessarv as it was just, and your vain de- 
Great Britain and the colonies. The govern- claratioas of the omnipotence of Parhament, 
ment of Great Britain was defied. TJ^ integri- and your imperious doctrines of the necessity 
ty of the Empire was broken into fragments, of submission, will be found equally Luipotent to 
The war, which was commenced to enforce the convince or to enslave your fellow-subjects in 
authority of the British government in the colo- America, who feel that tyranny is intolerable to 
nies, was changed into a war of subjugation British subjects." Again he said : " If illegal 
and extermination. Thuteen infant nations at violences nave been committed; as is said in 
once combined to resist tlie overwhelming, and America, cease, open the door of possibility for 
what appeared almost to be, the invincible re- acknowledgment and satisfaction. Cease your 
soiurces of the mother country. Hostile forces ' indiscrimidate inflictions. * * * What 
had met before the Declaration of Independence : though you march from town to town, from pro- 
and blood had been shed in the land of the ' vince to province— though you should be able 
" fiery puritans." •To Massachusetts, the slave- to enforce a temporary and local submission, 
holder vVasliington rushed with his companions ' which I ordy suppose, but admit— how will you 
ti'om Virginia and other slave-holding States i be able to secure the obedii^nce of the country 

you leave behind you in your progress to grapp 
the dominion of 1,800 miles of continent ; popu- 
lous in numbers ; possessing valor, Uberty, and 
resistance." Again he says, " It is evident that 
you cannot force them, united as they are, into 
your unworthy terms of siibmission. It is im- 
possible ; and when I hear General Gage cen- 
sured for inactivity I must retort with indigna- 
tion on those whose intemperate measures and 
imprudent c:3unoils have betrayed him into his 
present condition," After speaking of the com- 
manding talents of the men who led our revo- 
lutions he said: "I trust it will be obvious to 
your lordships that aU attempts to impose ser- 
vitude on such a mighty continental nation 
must be vain — must be fatal. You will be forced 
to retract. Avoid this humiliating disgraceful 
necessity with a dignity becoming your exalted 
situation, maka the first advances to concord, 
peace, and happiness, for that is your true dig- 
nity to act with prudence and justice." On 
another occasion, when some reference was 



to assist her in her struggle. From New 
Hampshire to Georgia, all who beheved in 
tne doctrines of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, stood side hj side, appeahng zo the God 
of Battles to sustam them in their contest.— 
Whilst England was waging w§r on this conti- 
nent, the battle of free principles was fought, \vith 
earnestness and courage which must command 
the a<Imiration of every true lover of liberty 
throughout all time. The names of the illus- 
trious British statesmen who formed the un- 
broken phalanx of tlie defenders of our hberty, 
are indissolublv linked with the histo^' of the 
Ee volution, and will Uve forever in the' grateful 
recollections of Americajis. They were the 
■demigods worthy of the Pantheon, such as I have 
heard is erected ia England by a distinguished 
nobleman who has a gallery which he calls his 
" Temple of Freedom," in which iie has pre- 
served the "counterfeit presentments" of all the 
defenders of Amorican rights, ana particularly 
of the fv?arles3 and eloquent Chatham, the saga- 
cious Eockingham, the majestic Fox, and those j made to the British troops operating in Ameri- 
two glorious Irishmen, the philosophic Burke j an, he remarked : " I love and honor the Eug- 
and the sincere and dauntless Barro. The les- i lish troops. I know then- vutues and then- 
son taught by rea^liag the debates ia the House [ valor. I know they can accomplish anything 
of Commons at the period of the Revolution i but impossibilities, and I know the conquest of 
ought not to be forgotten at the present day. 1 America is an impossibihcy. You cannot, I ven- 
The .fearlessness displayed by the British states- 1 ture to say, you cannot conquer America. * 



men, the freedom of expression of their opin- 
ions, justifying the conduct of the revolted colo- 
nies, and their severe denunciations of ihe con- 
duct 01 the government, have drawn fi'om Guizot, 
the French philosopher and statesman, in his 



* "^ If I were an American, as I am an 
Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed 
in my country I would n'^ver lay down my arms. 
Neves ! nevee ! neveb !"• 
Among the noblemen who stood forward 



Introduction to the Life of Wasnington, the high- , in defense of the colonies, was the Marquis 
est eulogium, not only on these men, but of that j of Rockingham, one of the purest a^ld wisest 
representative system which ia founded on the i statesmen of Great Britain. S'irm, constant, 
suifrages of the p80i>le, and authorizes and jus- I and incorruptible, he throw himself m be- 
tifles the glorious spectacle of these statesmen ; tween the Americans and the despotism 
defending right, law and a just cause. I have of the crown. He was not muchof a de- 
made some selections from the speeches and bater, but his letters are pubUshed in the 
writings of the prominent men of that day for i correspondence of Lord Chatham, and they 
the purpose of Dlustrating th:? frankness and exhibit his fearlessness and fonpcast in an emi- 
boldness of the defenders of our principles, and , nent degree. In 1778 Rockingham, wi-iting to 
at the same tune the indulgence exhibited in a : Cnatham, stated as foUows : " I find all concur 
monarchical* form of government, resting on ! in thinking that the best service which can be 
divine right. The lesson ought not to be lost i done for the public is to jjoint out and if possi- 
on a repubUcan form which owes its authority ble to convince them of the i npossibdity of go- 
siloly to the people and rests on the consent ing on with the war. To show them how much 
of the governed [ bl)od and treasure have already been wasted. 

Lord Chatham's name is familiar to us all ' and most particularly the miserable state of 
from om' schojl-bay days. His name is a house- the funds, to point out the weakness and ina- 
hold word among us, and to his manly defense bility with which the mihtary operations have 
of the rights of Americans we always turn with ' been planned, and inde !d tiie weakness and 
gratefid recollection. In 177i the King declared folly ot every measure which the ministers have 
m his speech his resolution to withstand every taken in this horrid war. The gross inatten- 
attempt to weaken or impair the supremo au- , tion and mispenditure of the pubUc money in 
thoriy of the legislature over the dominions of | various instances will I hope be made to appear, 
the crown. Lorl Cliabha-^, i:i preparing an ' In the aaue -o^r Roc'iin'jham c.jaiu vrrcti to 



Chatham, " I concciTC that America will never 
again assent to this country's having actual 
power within that continent. My line of poli- 
tics has ever hAon not to hold out tiattering 
expectations to the pubUc when I was not able 
to see the probability of their being accpmphsh- 
ed. I cannot, therefore, so far betray in j' trust 
to the public as to act as if that was practicable 
which I thought of otherwise." He said "It 
was hi-< dutv among others to show the country 
the miserable, forlorn, and perilous condition 
intt) which it had been brought." 

After the siu-rcnder of General Burgoyne, he 
wrote a letter to Chatham, a letter which, ii 
one had been written of a .similar tone, by any 
American Senator after the battle of Bull Rim, 
it would, probably, have caused his incarcera- 
tion in Fort La Fayette. Eocidugnani's letter 
is to bo foaud in the fourth volume of tlic Chat- 
ham papers, page 468. In tiiis he speaks as 
follows :— " A gentiemaii has arrived from the 
city and brings an account that the Warwick 
man-of-war arrived last night and brings ac- 
count that General Burgoyne's army has been 
obliged to surrender, that they are to be march- 
ed to Boston and thence sent to England, and 
not to serve against America dm'ing the war. 
/ tnist it is (rue." 

Let us now turn to the House of Commons, 
where stood a body of statesmen resisting the 
overwhelming majorities of the Administration ; 
appealing with prophetic warnings to their fel- 
low members against the bloody policy of the 
Crown. These men, loyal to the great princi- 
ples of Magna Charta and the Revolution of 
168S, proclaimed those principles, with perfect 
security that i^Lieu- loyalty to the crown would 
not be questioned, or that their lives or liberty 
would not be endangered. They were the true 
friends of the integrity of tSeir coimtry and of 
the Uberties and rights of their fellow subjects. 
Like their co-laborers in the House of Lords 
they behoved that thro'agh concUiation, conces- 
sion and peace, the unity of the empire might 
be preserved, and tiiey boldly declared that 
through these paths, and not by means of war 
and exrormination, was their country to be 
savud from desolation. Time wiU not permit 
mc to give extracts from the speeches of all 
those statesmen who preferred peace to war 
with the colonies. I can only refer to a few.— 
Edmund Burke stands hrst as the champion of 
conci iation and peace with America. He de- 
nounced all measures of violence against the 
colonics. He compiired the Secretary of W sr, 
Germaine, to Dr. yangrado, whose remedy for 
all ills was bleeding. " Bleeding,'" said Burke. 
" has been his' only prescription. For the two 
years that he has boon presiding over American 
afifaire, the most violent scalping, tomahawking 
measures have been pro,cticed. If a people de- 
prived of their ancient rights grow trait ca-ous, 
o'.eed ikeia .' , If they are attainied witli a sph-it 
of insuiTection, hlebilHiem. If their fever should • 
rise into robf>lUon, h>jer,d them, cries this State 
physician. More hlood, moke blood, still mobe 

BLOOD." 

bv the side of Burke stood the majestic Fox. 
Errtkine said of Fox that he was eloquence it- ; 
Holf ; that this great man, in the :-i^eness of his 
wisdom, was strenuously opposed to the insane 
policy which gave hirtli to the revolutionary v,ar 
with America and her United States ; that he I 
bad listened to the splendid orations of Burke. I 
delivored to empty benches ; that now that time 
and events liave pronounced their awful judg- 
mentsj no man would hazard his character by 
Hupportirig opuiions which, for a long time, tri- 
umphed in I'arhament, and inCamod the "reat 



body of the people until one-half of the Bnt 
' empire was severed. The speeches of F' 
I which remain as monuments of his powerful 
gumentkMon and sound judgment, fullv sust: 
1 the high eulogium .of Erskine. Fox' was t 
friend of the American cause from the hrst ( 
! set. After the colonies had been engaged 
i years with Great Britain, sustaining tuemsei 
against her immense resources and power. 
1779 -Fox told the House of Commons, " 
have lost America ; we have lost 23,000 me 
we have speut thirty mUlions by this accm's 
American war. What has been the cause 
this miscarriage ? Is not that the question 
Who led us into this war? Ministers. 'W 
were our motives for entering into and prose 
ting hitherto V Th.3 repeated assm-aijces 
ministers that the war*wa3 practi<?able — t 
the means for securing success'' were adequat 
that the issue woulrl be coiTespondent." Foj 
vain plead for a cessation of hostilities. 
had supported Mr. Powys in the House of Cc 
mons in the previt)us year when that gentlen 
maintained that, from the exhausted state 
the finances of the country and the great 
pense into wich the American war had plunj 
it,' nothing could be more necessary tiiaa pe; 
with .imorica. Mr. Powj^s moved that coma 
sioners appohited to treat with America she 
be authorized to declare the Americans ah 
lutely and forever independent. Mr. Fox, ia 
speech on that occasion, declared that the i 
pend(Aicy of America was impossible and tl 
Great Britain could not regain her ; that neitl 
concession nor coercion could recover her. 
another speech he pronounced the Amerit 
war to be unjust in its principle, absurd in 
prosecution, as it would be ruinous in its con 
qusnces. On another occasion h6 said: "A: 
ble lord has called the Americiin war a h 
w-ar. The application of the word holy to 1 
present wa^r may have appeared new to avi 
gentleman present but myself. It is not new 
me, and I will tell the house why it is not. 
was in Paris j ast at the eve of this very w 
and Dr. Franklin honored me with his intin 
cy. I romembor one day conversing with h 
on the subject, and predicting the fatal com 
quenoes. He compared the principles of i 
war and its probable effects to the ancient Ci 
saders. He foretold that our best blood a 
treasure woiild be squandered and thro .vn aw 
to no pur[5ose ; that hke the holy war, v.hile 
carried rain and destruction into America, 
should impoverish and depopulate Britain ; a 
while we went there under pretense of conf 
ring temporaLnot giiostiy benefits on the vi: 
quished, our concealed purpose was to destn 
enslave, or oppress, as it ijromiaed best to i 
swer our ends ; and like the pretended mart;' 
or zealot^' in ancient times, we concealed unc 
this fan- semblance every vice and passion, a'' 
rice, revenge, ambition, and base as well as i 
potent resentment." Mr. Fox again, in 17 
referring to the determination of Lord Noi 
not to have peace on any termt with the eg 
nies, remarked : " The noble lord had stak 
his reputation on carrying on the war. Did a 
man dispute his intention of carr^ving i* on 1 
If any man would doubt it, what would tlie r 
ble lor^l himself say ? Why, recollect I have i 
pointed Lf)rd Dunmore Governor of Virgin 
Good God ! then can you suppose I have any : 
rious idea of peace when I send out to that p: 
vince a m.an as obnoxious as ever came frc 
America ?" In the same year he charged tl 
the American war was continued upon the op 
ion of men whose interests U .promoted. 
stated that'lhere w^sro men who -alleged that 



time of war the power of the crown was greater 
than in times of peace. " But," said he, " the 
power of the crown was more glorious when it 
rested in times of peace and prosperity on the 
constitution and affections of the people. — 
What cause had we to hope that our armies 
would be more successful in America hereafter 
than they had been formerly ? We had abun- 
dance of victorias— the thanks of the House had 
been voted to (.lidbrent Generals, to Lord Corn- 
wallis, Sir Henry Clinton, and Admirals Arbuth- 
not, Rodney, and Clod knows whom. But what 
did our victories avail '" 

The British ministers would not be governed 
bv the prophetic utterances of these true friends 
of hberty. The weakness of the King controlled 
everythiug. Madness ruled the hoar, and the 
integrity of the British Empire was destroyed. 
Is there no lesson in the past fi'om which om' 
public servants and agftnts can profit ? 

TiioAmericaus accomphshed what their friends 
in Parliamout could not— the acknowledgment of 
their indepeadence. The success of American 
arms ostabiishQd the declaration of July 4, 1776, 
of the thirteen States to assume then* "places 
as ii'itio/is amongst tlie sovereign and independ- 
ent States of the world." The treaty of Peace 
made by Great Britam with the United States 
was in the folio wmg words : 

" His Britanic Majesty acknowledges the said 
United States, vi,5 : New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, Counecticat, New York, New Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mai-ylaud, Vu- 
gima. North Carolina, South Carolina and 
Georgia to be free, sovereign and independent 
States." 

The ath article of the treaty referred to the 
thirteen miited States. The 6th article declar- 
ed that there should be a fum and perpetual 
peace between His Britanic Majesty and the 
said States, and that His Majesty should with- 
draw his armies without carrying away any ne- 
groes or other property of the American inhabit- 
ants. Other treaties made about the same time 
with other European governments rpierred to 
the separate States by name as cohstitutiag 
the United States. It is dear that in the Trea- 
tise on " Adranalty Practice," written some 
years since by our Republican fellow-citiaen, 
Benedict, ho is correct in the statemonts that 
at th3 time of the Revelation each State became 
an iiidepend'enl nation, clothed with aU the pov/- 
ers of sovereignty. Iiideed,Hhe treaty to which 
*I have refeiTed, snows the express aoknowledg- 
meat of these colonies as separate and dis- 
tinct nations, ia tne clearest terms. That the 
States were di-itiuct nitions is the settled doc- 
trine of the Supreme Com't of the United States 
in decisions in'vvhicli it became nec3ssary to, re- 
fer to tiie history of the formation of the gov- 
ernment. The Supreme Court has declared that 
each State was, after and before the Declaration 
of Indepen lence^an in'lependent nation,. Each 
in its own manner adopted forms of government 
under which, as independent nations, they h^id 
all the functions of good government. Jlach 
was in itsoii an independent nation foreign to 
the other Sta.tos of the Union, as well a-; to other 
nations. You are well aware that ui 1777 the 
States for mutual aid formed a league or arti- 
cles of perpetual anion, known as the articles of 
Confederation. In 1789 they broke up this per- 
petual union, and formed a "more perfect 
union" under the present Constitution of the 
United States. By that instrmneut to the gov- 
ernment was granted only a portion of the pow- 
ers previously existing in the States or the peo- 
ple of the States. To use the language of the 



Supreme Court "the government was made by 
taking from the States and the people thereof, 
and transferring to the United States and the 
people thereof, certain portions of sovereignty, 
so that whilst under most other constitutional 
governments, including those of the other States 
of the Union, the legislative or sujjreme power 
may lawfully do anything which is not forbid- 
den in the Constitutions, the government of the ' 
United States has no potcers except such as are 
granted to it by the Constitution." 

At no period of our existence has it be- 
come so absolutely the duty of every citizen as 
at the present time to understand the structure of 
our State and General Governments. It is a 
common thing to compare our General Govern- 
ment mth that of foreign nations. It is a com- 
mon mistake to draw analogies from foreign 
governments when speaking of the operation of 
the government of the United States. This er- 
ror has contributed largely to bring about the 
present lamentable state of things under which 
we all suffer. Om- government has no analogy 
to any other. The Supreme Court of the Unit- 
ed States declared, many years since, that our 
Constitution was a new creation made after the 
Revolution, after twelve years of actual inde- 
pedence imder the Confederation, and made, 
not from any parent State, but from i*u-selves, 
and nothing else. At the time of the formation 
of the Constitution our people were not homo- 
geneous, but consisted of persons from all civi- 
lised nations— English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh, 
Dutch, Swedes and French. The framers of the 
Constitution made a new and original govern- 
ment. They did not in any manner address 
themselves to national prejudices, nor adopt, « 
nor even allude to any pre\iously existing gov- 
ernment as a pattern or standard, nor re-enact 
any known code of laws in whole or in part, but 
they passed by, in silence, the institutions of 
the whole world, and invented a Constitution 
which had neither pattern nor prototype in the 
actual or present stafS or past history of the hu- 
man race. 

It will not be without interest to trace the 
steps whereby this novel experiment in govern- 
ment was called into existence. The history of 
the formation of the government shows how se- 
dulously our fathers guarded the rights of the 
States — how unwUliug they were to have the 
sovereignty of the States sv/aUowed up in an 
immense consolidated government. They saw 
that in the States alone was to be found the 
great protection of hfe, liberty and property 
of the citizen. Yet they felt the necessity of a 
miion to protect their relations with foreign pow- 
ers, and to ensure peace and pi-otiperity 
at home. Experience had proved that the ar- 
ticles of Confederation adopted by the States 
daring tlie Revolution were not suited to the 
wants of the United States. Steps were taken 
to create a more efficient form of government, 
better calculated than the Confederation to ac- 
compHsh the desh'e of the people of the several 
States. When it was proposed to supersede the 
articles of Confederation, serion? objections 
were made by the leading statesmen of the day, 
and amongst others the objection was raised 
that as the States were already confederated, 
tinder a perpetual union, no power on earth 
could dissolve it but the consent of all the con- 
tracting parties. It was asked, why is the old 
Constitution to be dissolved because some of the 
States wish a new Constitution ? Alexander 
Hamilton thought it wi'oug to allow nine States 
to institute a new government (m the ruins of 
the existing one. But i\lr. Hamilton was over- 
, ruled, and the present Constitution of the Unit- 



ed States was agreed upon by delegates from 
the different States. After being adopted by the 
Convention, over which Washington presided, it 
was sent to the different States to be considered 
by them, and if approved, to be ratified by 
them. It may be instructive to refer to the his- 
tory of the action of the several States as illus- 
trating the apprehensions of the States as to the 
power of the new government : 

New Hampshire, after much consideration, 
adopted the Constitution, but with amendments, 
calciUated; as they declared, to quiet the fears 
of the people, and guard against an undue 
administration of the General G-overnment. Af- 
ter these amendments were made, the Consti- 
tution was adojjted only by a majority of 11 out 
of 103 votes. 

Massachusetts called her Convention to deU- 
berate on the Federal Constitution — " to ratify 
an explicit and solemn compact." The Massa- 
chnsetts Convention met before that of New 
Hampshire. It was in the Massachusetts Con- 
vention the argument was adduced against the 
consolidation of the General Government, that 
the General Government could not swallow up 
the local government. "Their existence," it was 
insisted, "is dependent on each other, and they 
must stand or fall together." Such was the op- 
posit^n to the Constitution, chiefly ou the 
ground of the apprehension of the loss of State 
sovereignty, that the Constitution was adopted 
by a majority of 19 out of a vote of 355 mem- 
bers. 

Rhode Island refused to call a Convention. 
She remained outside of the Union until Con- 
gress had assembled under the Constitution as 
adopted by the other States. 

Connecticut— Of this State it has been truly said 
that to her and New Jersey we are indebted for 
the Federal Government. They fought the bat- 
tle of the smaller a,^ainst the larger States. 
They insisted that, without regard to size, every 
State shordd have an equal representation in 
the Senate. " Small States," said Ellsworth, in 
her Convention, "must possess the power of self- 
defense. Will any one say there is no diversity 
of interests in the States ? and if there is, should 
not these interests be guarded ?" 

Sherman said : " The government of the Uni- 
ted States was Federal, and instituted by a 
wimber of sovereicpt States ; that the exercise of 
the governments of the States would preserve 
peace and good order in the place most remote 
from the Federal Government." Ellsworth, 
with prophetic vision, saw tliat if the United 
States and the States " want to fight, theij may 
do it, and no power of government can possibly 
prevent it. Perhaps, at some time, the S'ates may 
rise against the General Government.'" It was 
then that, defending tlie proposed Constitution, 
he said : " This Constitution does not attempt 
to coerce sovereign bodies (States) in their po- 
litical capacity. No coercion is api^lieable to 
them but of an armed force. If we should at- 
tempt to execute the laws of the Union by send- 
ing an armed force against a delinquent State, 
it would involve the good and the bad, the im- 
moral and guilty, in the same calamity. But 
le:ial coercion singles out the' guilty individual 
and punishes him for breaking the laws of the 
Union." Other members of the Convention in- 
sisted on the sovereignty of the States. They 
insisted that the structure of the General Gov- 
ernment rested like a most magnificent bridge 
built on strong and stately pillars, ami these 
pillars could not be destroyed without the con- 
sequent destruction of the superstructure.— 



Connecticut adopted the Constitution by a ma- 
jority of 88 out of 168 members. 

New York. — The delegates ft-om this State 
to the Federal Convention were Kobert Yates, 
John Lansing and Alexander Hamilton. Ham- 
Utou presented a plan of his own. His two col- 
leagues, long before the Convention dissolved, 
retired from that body, under the apprehension 
that the proposed system of government would 
end in consolidation. Although Hamilton favor- 
ed a strong form of government, he admitted he 
never intended the Abolition of the State govern- 
ments. The contest in the State of New York 
was extremely severe. The Convention which 
adopted the Constitution consisted of 55 mem- 
bers, and the act of ratiflca.tion was adopted 
only by a majority of 5. Even then, it was not 
adopted until after the passage of a preamble 
and resolutions declaratory of the rights of the 
people and the Sfates. These declarations, 
amongst others, announce the following doc- 
trines : — 
The right of the people to keep and bear arms. 
That no person shall be imprisoned or depri- 
ved of his life, liberty or property, without due 
process of law. 

The right of every person restrained of his li- 
berty to have an inquiry made into the cause of 
his arrest, and to be liberated, if he be unlawful- 
ly arrested. 

The right of every person to be free from 
searches of his property, liis person or papers. ' 
After the adoption of the Constitution and the 
amendments, a circular was addressed by the 
members of the Convention to the Governors of 
the several States, caUiug upon them to induce 
the States to adopt the proposed amendments. 
The circular stated that the proposed Constitu- 
! tion was very imperfect, but that an invincible 
1 reluctance to separate from their sister States 
, induced New York to adopt the Constitution.— 
It is clear that New York never would have as- 
i sented to the Constitution unless with such 
I amendments as now form a part of the Consti- 
j tution of the United States. When it was rati- 
i fied it was with the express understanding that 
i the rights set torth in these amendments should 
I not be " abridged or violated." It was Alexan- 
I der Hamilton, <>f the New York Convention. 
! who gave his idea of the power of the Gen- 
' eral Government to compel the submission of 
States, said : " It has been observed that to 
i coerce the states is one of the maddest projects 
that ever was devised. A failure of compliance 
; will never be confined to a single state. This 
[ being the case, can we suppose it wise to hazard 
I cf dvil u'OT. What a picture does this present 
to our view ! A complying state at war with a 
I non-complying state. Congress marching the 
.troops of one state into the bosom of another. 
This state collecting auxiliaries and forming 
perhai^s a majoritj'- against the Federal Head. 
I Can any man be well disposed towards a govern- 
ment wliich makes war and carnage tlie only 
means of supporting itself ; a government that 
c-m only exist by the sword ? Every such war 
must involve the innocent with the guilty. This 
single consideration should be sufficient to dis- 
pose every peaceable citizen .against such a 
government. T>ut can we believe that one state 
wiU suiier itself to be used as an instrument of 
coercion ? The theory is a dream. It is im- 
possible. 

In New Je7-sey.— This gallant State unani- 
mously ratified the Constitution. In the Feder- 
al Convention, Patterson, her delegate, had 
manfuUy sustained the banner of State sever- 



9 



eignty, and contributed, by hia efiforts, to re- 
serve to the smaller States an equal represen- 
tation in the Senate. 

Ill Pennsijlxiania — A warm opxjosition arose 
against the Constitution. All the zeal and abi- 
lity of the supporters of the Constitution was 
required to allay the fears of the people on the 
subject of consolidation. The preamble to the 
Constitution, in which the expression is used, 
" We, the people," was refeiTed to as evidence 
of this consolidation, to which it was answered 
by a member of the Pennsylvania Convention, 
in his appeal to the people. " Though the Fed- 
eral Convention proposed that it should be the 
act of the people, yet it is to be done in their 
capacities ns citizens of the several members of 
our Confederacy, who are declared to be the 
people of the United States." 

Still ilirtlier referred to, as an evidence against 
consolidation, were the provisions of the con- 
stitution in relation 'to the mihtia, that each 
state could appoint every of&cer of its own mih- 
tia and train the same. By this it could have a 
special and powerful military support, wherein 
no citizen of any other State could even be a pri- 
vate sentinel. When it was suggested that the 
States would be reduced to the footing of coun- 
ties in an Empire, (the same idea which is taught 
by the present Executive of the United States,) 
it was answered, " Where is the county that can 
independentlv train its mihtia, appoint its civil 
and militia officers, establish a pecviliar system 
of penal laws ; in short, where is the coimty in 
the Union or the world, that can, Uke the States, 
exercise independent legislation, taxation or 
judicial powers. Pennsylvania manfully resist- 
ed the idea of a consolidated government, but 
insisted on % federal union for specific 2)urposes, 
Tije constitution was adopted in Pennsylvania 
by a convention consisting of 69 members. Of 
these, one-third voted against the Constitution 
on the ground of their apprehensions that the 
i'ederai government would assume colossal 
strength and destroy the rights and liberties of 
the people of the State. The minority also is- 
sued an address to these constituents, setting 
forth the grounds of their opposition to the rati- 
fication of the Constitution. 

Delaware was tlie first to ratify the Con- 
stitution. It was for the interest of a 
small State to exchange her position as an 
independent nation for an equality with Virginia 
and Massachusetts in a Congress of the United 
States. She saw that amendments would be 
adopted by the larger States, and on the con- 
vention called to act on the amendments, she 
TOted for them. 

Mar uland— The convention which adopted the 
Constitution in this State was composed of 76 
members, of which a minority of 27 (amongst 
wh im were Luther Martin and William Pinck- 
ney) advised amendments to the Constitution. 
Resolutions were introduced expressive of the 
sentiments of the convention against a consoU- 
dated government, against the abrogation of 
the constitutions or bills of right of the States, 
and declaring that the doctrine of non-resistance 
to arbitrary power and oppression was absurd, 
slaijish and destructive of the good and happiness 
of mankind. 

Virginia— This State desired to have a fede- 
ral government with all such powers as were 
required by it, but stiU so guarded as not to 
pat in Jeopardy the rights of her people as citi- 
zens of a sovereign State. Virginia had a dread 
of a consolidated government. Patrick Henry 
complained that the constitution had an awful 
squinting towards monarchy. 

Virginia had a great dread of the power of the 



General Goverament, but she assented to its 
creation under the p.3rsuasion of some of her 
wisest statesmen. Virginia was assm-ed that 
che new Government was one entirely depen- 
dent on the win of the States. The idea of 
keeping the Union together by force- was not 
entertained for one moment, she was assured 
h<f the framers of the Constitution. The origi- 
nal plan of the Constitution submitted to the 
Convention of all the States, gave the 
General Government authority "to call forth 
the force of the Union against any member 
of- the Union failmg to fulfil its .duties 
under the articles thereof." When this clause 
was before the General Convention of the 
States, Mr. Madison, of Vu-ginia, and after- 
wards President of the United States, said :— 
" The more he reflected on the use- of force, the 
more he doubted the practicability, the justiee 
and the efficacy of it, when appHod to the peo- 
ple collecti-rely and not individually. A Union 
of States containing such an ingredient seemed 
to provide for its own destruction. The use of 
force against a State would look more like a 
declaration of war than, an infliction of punish- 
ment, and would probably be considered by the 
party attacked as a dissobdion of all compacts 
by which it might be bound. He had hoped 
such a system might be framed as might ren- 
der that recourse unnecessary," and moved that 
the clause be postponed. The motion was 
agreed to unanimously. That aflection, not 
force, was the bond of our Union, John Quincy 
Adams also beUeved, when he declared, years 
after Madison :— " If the day shall eome, 
may Heaven avert it, when the atiections of the 
people of these States shall be aUenated from 
each other, when this fraternal spirit shall give 
way to cold indifference, or colhsions of interest 
shall fester into hatred, then the politieal bonds 
of political association will not hold together 
parties no longer attracted by the magnetism 
of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies, 
and far better will it be for the people of the 
disunited States to part in friendship from each 
other, than to be held together by restraint." 

The Convention of Virginia adopted certain 
•amendments, and issued a circular addressed 
to their sister States, calling on them to join 
with Vu'ginia in demanding the call of a Con- 
vention to make amendments. The Convention 
was composed of 168 members. The Constitution 
was adopted by only five majority. 

North Carolina refused, in her Convention of 
2(58 members, by a majority of 100 (134 to 86) to 
ratify the Constitution untU amendments had 
actually been made. These amendments were 
intended to secure to the State all the sovereign 
rjo-hts she had, except such as were expressly 
delegated. Indeed, by every State in which the 
Constitution was debated, the idea was con- 
stantly presented that the new system of gov- 
ernment was to give the General Government 
no power except such as v^as erpressly delegated. 
North Carolina ' never came into the new gov- 
ernment until after the amendments were 

South' OaroVna adopted the Constitution in 
her Convention by a vote of 149 to 73, but with 
this express declaration appended to her ordi- 
nance of ratification :— " That no section or 
paraTaph of the said Constitution warranta a 
construction that the States do not retain every 
po>rer not expressly relinquished by them, and 
vested in the General Government of the 

Georgia ratified the Constitution unanimoosly. 

When'the first Congress, under the new Consti- 

tu'-'on "s^embled, aUtheorigi-^.alt'iirteeaStatea 



10 



were not represented. North Carolina and ! among parties having no common judge, each 
Rhode Island had not then assented to the j pahty has an equal eight to jttdge fob itself 



Constitution. After the amendments to the 
Constitution were adopted, the thssenting States 
united then- fortunes wth their sister States. — 
When this new government of thirteen States 
was thus inaugurated, the several States of the 
Union remained as sovereign as they ever were, 



as well of INFEACTIONS as of the mode AlfD 
MEASDKEOF EEDRESS." 

The Constitution of the United States was 
formed by the sanction of the States, given by 
each in sovereign capacity. It adds to the sta- 
bility and dignity, as well as to the authority of 



except so far as they had surrendered certain i the Constitution, that it rests on this legitimate 
rights expressly to the General Government.— \ and solid foundation. The Slates, then, being 
The action of Congress could not, after the now ] the parties to the Constitutional compact, and 
government was fonned,^ and did_ not, bind any | m their sovereign capacity, it follows of neces- 
sity that there can be no tribunal above their 
authority, to decide in the last rosoi?t such 
questions as may be of sufficient • ma42:nitude to 
require their intei-position. The authorOy of 
Constitutions over Governments, and (he sover- 
eignty of the people over the Constitutions, are 
truths which are at all times ^lecessary to 6e 
kept in mind. 

And here is the Virginia resolution, framed 
by James Madison." 

'■'• Mesolved, That this Assembly [the General 
Asse ui^j of the State of Virginia] does explicitly 
and peremptorily declare that it views the pow- 
ers or the Federal Government— as resulting 
from the compact to which the States are par- 
ties, as limited by the plain sense and inten-. 
tion of the inatnimeut constituting that com- 
pact — as no further valid than they are author- 
ized by the grants enumerated in that compact ; 
and that in case of a dehberate, palpable and 
dangerous exercise of other powers not granted 
by tiie said compact, the States who aee par- 
ties thereto have the bight, and abb in duty 

1 BOUND, to interpose FOR ABBESTING THE PKO- 
1 GKESS Oi' THE EVIL, AND FOR MAINTAINING WITH- 
IN THEIB BESPECTIVE LIMITS THE AUTHOBITLES, 
, EIGHTS AND LIBEBTIES APPERTAINING TO THEM." 

! These resomtions formed the grfcunds 
of the success of the Democr, tie par- 



of the States of the old Confederation, which 
had not formally given their assent to the Con- 
stitution. That histrument did not specify 
which were the States bound by it, and it could 
only be ascei-tained by searching the national 
archives,, and finding there the resolutions and 
ordiaances of the several States which had rati- 
fied it, and had thereby agreed to be governed 
by the laws of the new government. The Con- 
stitution was launched in the fuU assm-ance of 
the sovereignty of the States, except so far as 
they had sun-endered certain specilic rights to 
form a National Government. It was organized 
in the fullesc conhlence. that it never would or 
could be converted into a huge consolidated go- 
vernment. 

Lot us how turn to the practical operations of 
the new government. Geneml Washington, the 
first President, saw, with serious app'-Gnonsion, 
the dangers to wLicii tliis new experiment was 
exposed. " The foremost man oi ail the world," 
by his patri )tism and judgment, amidst perils 
of no ordinary character, piloted out our ship 
of State into the broad ocean of an uncertain 
future. During his administration, feeble in- 
surrect'O-is against the law arose, but they were 
quieted without bloodshed, as much by the exer- 
cise of liis clemency, prudence and spirit of con- 
ciUatioa as by any disylay of force. Whjin he sur 



rendered the :m1 ■nil, isti a 't)i Or • tie government, lie I ty in after years. They have been the 
lei^ to iiis countrymen the rich legacy of Ins pa- great chart of that great conservative 
ternal advice, in tut; form of a Farewell Address, ! organization of the country. They have been 
in which he warned them against the insidious endorsed and approved in tm-n by every De- 
attempts which would be made to array one ! mocratic National Convention. These princi- 
section of the country ag;)inst the other. Ke , pies alone have given security to om- form of 
was succeeded by <iohn Adams, under whose governs: ent, and for one, I am not disposed to 
administration an actempt was made to convert i smrender these doctrines at a time wJien their 
the Federal Government into a consohdated go- i support will alone save the country from des- 
vernment. Then arose the questions between ' potism and anarchy. In the States only can 
the General and State Governments. It was | the people find refuge and protection. 



during his- administration that the States Oi 
Virginia and Kentucky passed memorable res- 
olutions declaratiiry of the rights of the States 
and the powers of tie General Government. 

The Kentucky Resolutions declare as fol- 
lows : — 



After having thus far traced the origin and 
progress of om* peculiar government, let us 
enqiiire when and whence first came any move- 
ment for its dissolution and destruction. 

The fii-st suggestion for a dissolution of the 
present Union came from Massachusetts, in 



" Eesolved, That the several States compos- [ 1811, when Mr. Quincy, of that State, declared 
ing the United States of America, are not j in Congress that if tlie bill for the admission of 
united on the principles of unhnuttxl submission - Louisiana as a State of the Union should become 
.to the General Government ; but that by com- 1 a law, the States which composed it were 
pact midor the style aid title of a Constitution free from their obligations, and as it was tl e 
for the United States, and of amendments i right of all, so it would be the duty of some to 
thereto, they constitute a General Government , "prepare for a separation — amicab'U, if they 
for special purposes, delegated to that govern- i could— forcibly, if they mast." 'Mx. Quincy was 
ment ccrtaia definite p(rffc'rs, reserving each : called to order tor this declaration. The Speak- 
State to itself the residuary mass of right to i er decided that the reference to a separation of 
their o%vn self-govei-nment, and that whenso- the States was not in order. From this decision 
ever the General Government assumes undele- Mr. Quincy appealed, and the chair was m't sus- 
gated powers, its acts are uuautiioritative, void, tained by the close vote of 56 to 53. Again, fi'om 
and of no force ; that to this compact each 1 Now England, the attack on the Union 
State acccided as a State, and is an integral par- was renewed during the war with Great 
ty ; that this Government, created by this com- t ''Britain, declared in' 1812. It was then that 
pact, was not made the exclusive or final judge in Massachusetts the State authorities took 
of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; miaaures to prevent the General Govem- 
bince that would have made its discretion, and i ment from obtaining volunteers. It was 
not the Constitution, the measiu-e of its pow- '■ then that the Hartford Conventicm was held, lit 
era ; but, that as in aU other cases of com'>act, ' which the doctrine was announced that the 



11 



withdrawal of a State from the Union could take cism, with untiring zeal, rallied its hosts to the 
place under certain circumstances, and would j destruction of slavery. . An unscrupulous sys- 
be rightful and just. It was also in this Con- ' tem of politics at once seized hold of the preju- 
vention that the anti-slavery agitation was sug- j dices of the North, and sought for power through 
gested, and which was renewed in the contest its influences. As was natural, the slavehold- 
for the admission for Missouri as a slave State, ing States became aroused to a sense of the 
During the discussions on' this question of the alarming danger to which they were exposed, 
admission of Missouri, the division of the States and resolved not to yield what they believed 
of the Union was looked iipon as a catastrophe ' were their rights under the Constitution. ' The 
to be dreaded by every patriot. Again, during ' line was drawn. The North, by its legislation, 
the administration of Gen. Jackson, in 1832. the ' by its elections, declared that the black and the 
onerous duties imposed by our tarifl' laws, j white race shall stand on the same platform, 
which enriched the eastern inanufactm-ers, ex- under the Constitution and legislation of the 
cited the opposition of the agricidtural States i United States. The South rephed that black 
of the South to that degree that South Cpjolina ! men shall be deemed property, when they 
in solemn convention declared, that as she ' are slaves, and that, under all circumstan- 



deemed the tarifl' laws passed by Congress wi- 
constitutional, she would not permit these 
laws to be executed within her limits. The 
eflect of this stand by South Carolina was 
to array that State against the General Govern- 
ment. A collision of arms between that State 
and the United States was imminent. Tnese 
points in our political history are refen-ed to for 
the purpose of asking the question, in what 
manner v/ere the dangers impending over the 
country avoided. The answer is, that the same 
spirit of compromise and conciliation which fram- 
ed the Constitution and created the UnioE, on all 
occasions saved our government from destruc- 
tion. On all these trying occasions the General 
Government was preserved by conciliation, by 
concession, by compromise — terms which, at the 

E resent day, are repudiated by our Republican 
•lends. Yet these terms were dear to Demo- 
cratic Presidents like Madison, Monroe and 
Jackson. Thaee patriots held no defiant aspect 
towards States, whether they were eastern or 
southern, biit with statesmanlike prudence sug- 
gested yielding to compromise ^yith the com- 
plaining members of the Confederacy. These 
patriotic men loved the Union more than the 
triumph of any party 0¥er any State. Thev 
knew that the existence of this government 
rested on the attachment of the people of each 
and every State, and not on the power of the 
General Government to compel, by force, sub- 
mission to its decrees. 

But this expenmsnt of a government depend- 
ing on the consent of the goveraed, was to be 
subjected to a still severer trial than any to 
which it had yet been subjected. A sadder sight 
was to be witnessed than had over yet been 
presented, \yithm some of the northern and 
eastern States a spirit arose which seemed 
resolved on the annihilation of sJavery. This 
snirit, born uf a fanaticism \?hich looks on 
slavery as an evil heaven has ordained 
should be abolished, with steady and unyield- 
ing step has advanced doling the past thii'ty 
years, gathering strength \rith each year, 'antil 
it has at last proclaimed its determination that 



ces, they shall be in a subordinate condi- 
tion to the white man. The slave States 
insisted that the government of the United 
States was made by and for white men 
alone. They insisted that the Supreme 
Court of the United States had virtually decided 
that tliis construction put on the Constitution of 
the United States is correct. That this differ- 
ence of opinion between the slave and ' free 
States would lead to civil war and the disrup- , 
tion of the Union, unless some concession svere 
made by both parties, was the opini^in cf every 
leading mind of the countiy. Webster and Clay, 
who now sleep in thoir honored graves, mourned 
by all who revere that patriotism which rises ' 
above party fidelity, forewarned then- country- 
men against the agitation of t'lis. dangerous 
question. The statesman of the North appealed 
to his fellow-citizens to conquer their prejudices. 
The statesman of the South solicited his coun- 
trymen to yield something of their constitution- 
al rights to save the glorious inheritance of our 
Union. These distinguished men, rich in feel- 
ings of devotion to the whole country — rich in 
experience — desired to meet and settle the 
teiTible question of the day, not as fanatical 
zealots, not as wild enthusiasts, but as states- 
men who had to deal with the stern realities of 
Kfe and not -nith the theories of philosophej-s. 
They knew that tlie reasoning of a Buxton 
or a Brougham was inappUcabie to our pressing 
difficulti'-s. They dealt with slivery tliousande 
of miles distant from the mass of the British 
people, whilst we stood, for the first time in 
the history of the world, surrounded by mUhnns 
of a race diS'oreat from and inferior to, as was 
insisted, the white race. The question was 
novel and overwhelming. It must be met. 
The Union or slavery was and is the issue. 
For me, come wkat wfll, I am with the 
oatriots of the past, for the Union as our 
forefathers made it. The Union imder which 
my loreiathers lived is good enough for me, 
and it is for its preservation I am pre- 
jiaied to make any sacrifice. It is in vain to 
dis'ruise the fact tliaf- the election of the present 



slavery shall no longer be tolerated under our [ Executive was the triumph of the anti-slavery 
government. The status of the black race, un- idea of the North. True, he was elected by di- 
der the government of the United States, has visions amongst his political opponents, yet 
thus become the great question of the day. — \ still he was constitutionally elected, and the op- 
The free States claim that the declaration that ponents of slavery claimed that the power of the 



" aU men are born free and equal," justifies 
their position in favor of the equality of the 
races. To this it is ansv.'ered that Mr. Jefferson 



'the 
general go-^ ernment should be exercised to *ar- 
ry out their ideas. No sooner was his election 
announced, than the rumbhng of the coming 



borrowed the expression from Ulpian, who, ia ' earthquake was heard. Again the patriots of 
the third centtuy, declared the same doctrine, the country, under the lead of .tlie chivalrous 
Omiies liberi nasceniar, and that Ulpian, in the ' Crittenden, proposed terms of compromise, 
then dawning Ught of Christianity, referred not They were, Tinfortimately for that country, re- 
to an inferior race, hke. the black, but) to those j jected. Most of the slave States called their 
who were of his own race, iisdeni seminibHS or- ' conventions together to repeal the ordinances 
turn, to the white slave, like Spartacus, into ' which bound them to the Union, and thereby 
whose mouth the dramatist has placed thril- ' formally separate from their sister States. — 
ling allusions to liberty. Eeligious fanati- Amidst the tumult of poUtical excitement, tl^ 



12 



slave States of Virginia and Kentucky united reads a newspaper, draws a check or sends a 
with the free State s in a call for a Peace Con- i telegraphic message, is taxed for war purposes ; 
veution. Hero again the friends of the Union but I need not further enumerate the dili'erent 
proffered terms of concession to the free States, j modes in which everybodj' is taxed every day 
and again they were rejected. ITiat Conyention ! to i>ay the exj^enses of the war. This war debt 



adjourned. A few weeks only passed and the 
scene opened on " the bloodiest picture on the 
page oftime." The tramp of armed men— the 
glittering bayonet— tlie rumbling roll of artil- 
lery, proclaimed that the die was cast. "We were 
in the midst of the direst of calamities — Civn; 
Wab. 

It is useless to refer to the past to inquire 
how we have been brought into this affliction. 
I could charge that the war has been chang- 
ed from its original policy- its original object. 
I am here to say what should be done now, under 
existing circumstances. In my judgment, we 
are compelled to decide, not whether the South 
is to be subjugated, but whether the North 
is to be saved. The man who talks of sub- 
jugation and extermination of the South, neither 
appreciates the teachings of Christianity nor of 
profane history. Such men are unsafe advi- 
sers in times like these. . The people must look 
at facts, and not be carried away by iancies. Let 
us look at some few facts, for the past two 
years a war has raged, not between us and a 
foreign nation, but with our own countrymen— 
with men who are the relatives and friends of 
the people of the North. I ask any man who 
has a heart to feel, if there are not sufficient 
homes made mournful and desolate to make us 
all pause and reflect — not sufficient blood to 
satisfy any Moloch ? The character of the war, 
its exhausting expense, its consequences, are 
so powerfully given by Mr. Spaulding, one of 
the Repubhcan members of Congress from this 
State, that I must refer you to his speech for 
one of the best portraits I have yet seen of the 
present struggle. He calls it a bloody and ex- 
hausting war. He teUs us that it costs over 
$2,500,000 a day— that the G-overnment is spend- 
ing at a fearful rate the accumulation of years 
of former prosperity — that it withdraws mil- 
lions from industrial pursuits, and takes from 
the wealth of the country— that an immense 
army must be supported by those who labor 



is a mortgage alike on all the productive indus- 
tiy and property of Eepublicans, democrats, 
old line whigs, conservatives and abohtionists. 
This war tax is aheady beginning to be noticed 
by the people ; but, as the war is procrastina- 
ted and the debt increased, the bui'den wiU be 
more deeply felt. While we are running along 
at forty miles an hour under the pressure of 
irredeemable paper, necessarily issued and cir- 
culated to prosecute the war, the present taxa- 
tion is easily jsaid, and there is a seeming j)ros- 
perity ; hue I can assure gentlemen that a 
reckoning day will surely come." 

I ask m;p countrymen if they ever dreamed, 
in theu' wildest enthusiasm, that the struggle 
between the North and the South would ever 
assume its present gigantic proportions ? — 
Even the President of the United States, with 
all the advantages which his ofiicial position af- 
forded him, when he called for 75,000 men, 
showed his opinion of the feebleness of the se- 
ceding States. These numbers have been in- 
creased to that degree tlxat the President has 
had more than a milhon of men under his com- 
mand. At the commencement of the war the 
country groaned under an expenditure of one 
milhon of doUars per day. Now our daily ex- 
penditures are admitted to be two and a half 
millions, and probably are nearer three mil- 
lions. The present head of the Treasury De- 
partment, in submitting its estimates to Con- 
gress, has been compelled, it Was well been said, 
to resort to figures which bear greater resem- 
blance to the .calculations of astronomers con- 
cerning the movements of celestial bodies in 
illimitable space, than to anything ten-estrial. 
I need not refer to the hundreds of thousands 
of the best men of the land, who have been lost 
to their families and the industry of the nation. 
We have arrived at that point in the progress 
of the war when each man must decide for him- 
self, what should be his coiu'se. I am aware 
that a vigorous prosecution of the war is the 



daily and those who have acquired property.— ^ only test of loyalty in the judgment of Eepubh- 
He admits the inherent difficulty of conquering ' can partizans. The Democracy and Conserva- 
" and subduing an intellU,ent people, extending tive men of the country are denounced as trai- 
oner such a wide extent of territory as is covered tors. Under such denunciation the Democracy 
by the revolted States," and particularly over a , wiU not quail. Pointing to the briUiant record 



from" Mr. Spaulding's speech. Speaking of the apply to our defamers the words of Moore," 

debt contracted by the war, he says : a conte.....t .-n the rain-on w.o . .,,iv u, ,ii>i,.y,,i ' 

" Every dollar of debt contracted becomes a 
first mortgage upon the enthe property and We have here, inthis city, thousands upon 
productive industry of the country. It affects thousands of patriotic Democrats, loyal to the 
the farmer, laborer, mechanic, nianufacturer, Union and the Constitution, but not to the Ee- 
merchant, banker, commissioned merchant, publican party. They seek foi' a restoration of 
professional man and retired capitalist. Every that Union, for the preservation of that Consti- 
pound of tea, coffee and sugar use.! is taxed to tution, but they do not believe that war alone- 
pay the expenses of the war, and the person can accomphsh this desirable result. We have 
using these articles of daily consrjnption. pays tried for two years the pohcy of a vigorous pro- 
the tax in the increased price. Every person secution of war. Is it not time to try the ex- 
£hat uses wine, brandy, whiskey, beer, segars periment of a vigorous prosecution of peace. 
or tobacco, pays a portion of the war tax. All War has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of 
necessaey articles of dress, such as shoes, our tVUow-citizens, and squandered tlie miihons 
boots, hats and wearing apparel, are taxed in taken from industry and the savings of labor. It 
like mannei*, and ail superfluous and unneces- has added to the primeval curse of man by re- 
sary articles, such as silks, laces, diamonds and quiring 'additional hours of toil to meet the 
jewelry, are heavily taxed ; and I would bo glad taxes of the government. It is impoverishing 
to see the tax still further increased on them, the laborer while it em-iches the heartless con- 
in order to prevent, if possible, their use at this \ tractor, and is widening and deepening the 
time. Every person that rides upon railroads, chasm dividing the northern and southern 



13 



states. The fiery ordeal of battle has been , 
tried for two years. The administration al- ' 
though armed with iUimitable powers over the j 
men and currency of the country, with its pro- ] 
clamaticn of emancipation, with "its bills of con- 
fiscation, has not restored the Union. All then- 
efforts have proved fruitless, have signally [ 
failed. Shall this erperimentum crucis be still 
further tested ? Are we not prepared to try the 
experiment of peace. If there be such a dis- t 
tinction as War Democrats and Peace Demo- 
crats, I rally under the white banner of peace. 
For myself I cannot understand why any man 
who desires a vigorous prosecution of the war 
should hesitate to sustain the RepubHcan party. 
If the country demands a war policy, it is due to j 
the country that the administration should be 
sustained by men who insist on a vigotous pro- 
secution of hostilities. The Republican party 
stands before the world committed to the war. 
Its avowed policy is the subjugation of the 
South. President Lincoln, as the head of that 
party, proclaims ertiancipation to every slave in 
the South. The President is, imder the late le- 
gislation of Congress, authorized to command 
the services of every able-bodied man to execute 
the RepubUcan policy. Every man who believes 
in the President's policy should sustain him and 
his party. If the Republican party has a ma- 
jority of followers, let us not, as Democrats, by 
false pretences, and by political juggleiy, de- 
prive them of the opportunity of carrying out 
their views. Let the Democracy say that they 
gloriously carried on war with foreign foes, when 
the opponents of Democracy attempted to take 
sides wth these foes, but the Democracy now 
wish to live in peace with their owri countrymen. 
They believe, with Cicero, that peace is prefera- 
ble to any civil war ; IbeUeve that if the present 
policy of the Administration be carried out, the 
Union is irrevocably gone. It is time for th§ 
Democracy to declare that we seek to call back 
the seceded States to the Union, with aU their 
rights, with all their institutions as guaranteed 
to them under our present Constitution. That 
we seek restoration, not over the bloody fields 
of war, but by the paths of conciliation and 
peace. 

We cannot mistake the signs of the times. 
The elections of last fall were clear and unequi- 
vocal condemnations of the Administration. — 
When this war broke out the Administration 
held power, because it seemed as if the popular 
wiU was with it. Since the calnj and " sober sec- 
ond thought" of the American people has begun 
to operate, it has found expression in a variety 
of forms. In the western States the legisla- 
tures have before them suggestions for a settle- 
ment of our difficulties. New Jersey, in like 
manner, is moving for some measures "whereby 
we can remedy our present difficult es, and Con- 
necticut has, with a courage which does her hon- 
or, presented, as the standard bearer of her De- 
mocracy, her worthy son, Thomas H. Seymour, 
the soldier and the'atatesman. The people are 
aUve to a sense of their danger. This govern- 
ment is, after all, founded on popular will.— 
Sustained by that, an administration is strong ; 
opposed by it, it is powerless. That popular 
will is 'now being marie known. The local elec- 
tions in this State, within the past few weeks, 
show a wonderful revolution Ie the public mind. 



They show that if Horatio Seymour were now a 
candidate, he would be elected by over 100,000 
majority. The masses of the people desire a 
change of policy in the administration of the 
Government. The voice of the people cannot 
be disregarded by pubUc servants. It must be 
obeyed. In this hour, beyond question, " the 
voice of the people is the "voice of God." Poli- 
tical power is with the men of the State, 
not with the Governors. Cardinal Bellarmine, 
in that "Dark Age" for liberty, the Seventeenth 
century, tinily says : 

" The supreme power is given by God to the 
men who compose a State, or a regularly consti- 
tuted political community. There is no such 
thing as an organization of government, hold- 
ing power by any positive institution, or any 
givincj-over of rights, distinct from the natara 
constitution of the people, but only as the natu- 
ral consequence of the principles upon which 
the government has been framed. Therefore 
the sovereign power can neter be given over to 
one person, nor to any set of men, but abides in 
the whole constituted body of ih.e people.'" 

The President of the United States, the Gov- 
ernors of the States, all pubhc men, cannot but 
feel that they would rather have aU the super- 
visors and constables of a .^reat State like New 
York with them than a division of any army. — 
When an administration has the supervisors 
and constables, they have the people, and with- 
out popular support, nothing can be achieved. 

I have endeavored to show you, my fellow- 
citizens, that conciliation and concession cotdd 
have saved these colonies to the British Empire 
—that history shows that war cannot re-unite, 
but can divide forever brethren of the same 
family. Educated in a Christian community, I 
have been taught to beUeve that "Blessed are 
the peace makers." Obedient to the promptings 
of the spkit of true religion — enlightened by the 
teachings of history— inspired by the recollec- 
tions of the common glory which belongs to the 
northern and southern States, I am ready to 
stand forward as one of the advocates of peace. 
I am ready to try the experiment of recovering 
our lost brethren, not by arms, but by endeav- 
oring to conciliate them. To the Republicans, 
let us leave the cry of war. Let us Democrats 
appeal to the people to stay this fratricidal strife. 
Let us insist that peace " hath her victories as 

weU as war." Let us demand an armistice 

Let us have a convention of the States. Let us 
civilians imitate the pickets of both armies. If 
they with arms in their hands can talk together 
and bring back the past history and past re- 
nown of a common country, I cannot see why 
civilians cannot deliberate together. We have, 
thus far, seen the fniitless efforts of powerful 
and overwhelming millions with their armies on 
the field to restore our broken Union. In the 
name of the God of mercy, let us try to restore 
it by peace. Who is there amongst us that will 
not rejoice at the close of this struggle ? Not 
one amongst us but will hail with joy that day 
when the dove of peace, set free from the Demo- 
cratic ark, shall find a resting place, and retiuTi 
to proclaim that the encrimsoned waters of this 
civil war are subsiding, and we can behold the 
bow of concihation and unity embracing once 
more at.t. the States of this Union. 



T II E 

|lfto-|orli MtM^ €ni\imm] 

THE WHITE~¥aN^ paper. 

The Proprietors of The Caucasian are happy to announce tha 
'' the press being once more free," they can now send their paper 1 
niail. The Caucasian is issued by the publishers of 'The Day-Bqo] 
the place of which paper it will take for the present. Through the loi 
and dreary "reign of terror" it has been regularly issued, though i 
great loss. During that period its proprietors have received a multitu( 
of inquiries for it which they could not supply. That time, howeve 
being now passed, they will be glad to furnish all with the paper wl 
desire it. 

The principles of The Caucasian are the principles of White Men 
Liberties, opposition to Negro Equality, and in favor of an appeal 
peaceful agencies to restore the Union and the Constitution. It oppos 
the outrageous system of arbitrary arrests, the suspension of the wr 
of habeas corpus, and all assaults upon the freedo'm of speech or of tl 
press. It isjalso devoted to an explanation of the so-called Slavei 
Question, and stands firmly for White Supkemacy, and a defense < 
the rights and welfare of the Producing and Working Classes, now in 
l»erilled by the doctrine of Negro Equality, High Tariffs, Paper Cu 
rency and Excessive Taxation. 

With the principles of our forefathers as its platform, The Caucasia 
confidently appeals to all lovers of their country for support, and, sul 
jected as it has been to the persecution of the misguided men now i 
office, it would request that earnest efforts be made, in every locality, 1 
extend its circulation. 

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Ua-,SEND rOR A SPECIMEN COPY.'J 

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